Jessica Alba is the co-founder of The Honest Company. (Getty)
Actress Jessica Alba is one of the richest self-made women in the U.S., but not thanks to her acting. The Mechanic: Resurrection actress is the co-founder of The Honest Company, which produces non-toxic, eco-friendly products for parents to use with their children. Although the company has faced controversy, the company is valued at over $1 billion.
Here’s a look at Alba’s worth, how she’s earned it and what she does with it.
1. Alba Has An Estimated Net Worth of $340 Million
Jessica Alba on The Tonight Show on August 25. (Getty)
Forbes listed Alba at #42 on its 2016 America’s Self-Made Women list. The magazine estimates that she has a net worth of $340 million. Just a year before, the magazine estimated her personal fortune at $200 million.
The 35-year-old Abla is married to the 37-year-old Cash Warren, who has his own business. Warren and two of his friends founded Pair of Thieves, a sock company. Warren works as the director of marketing.
2. She Co-Founded Honest in 2011 & the Company Is Now Valued at $1.7 Billion
Jessica Alba at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards. (Getty)
Alba was inspired to create The Honest Company in 2008, after her first child, Honor, was born. However, the company didn’t launch until 2011, after finding her business partners. Her partners are chief product officer Christopher Gavigan, CEO Brian Lee and COO Sean Kane.
In an interview with Inc. Magazine in 2014, Alba said that everyone she came to with her idea was skeptical at first.
Everyone I approached was skeptical. There wasn’t one person who said, “Yeah, that can happen.” I heard “Just do one thing really well and then you can expand” a lot. But I wanted this to be a whole lifestyle brand. Everyone I talked with in Hollywood could not wrap their heads around the idea. Whenever I tried to sit down with them about it, they would just get this glazed look on their faces. Entertainment is a totally different business. It’s like, how do you squeeze the most out of a person for five seconds, and then you move on to the next one. It’s hard for people to take anyone seriously who’s never done this before. They see you only as something else. But all that just gave me fire to move forward.
Even Warren was skeptical about the launch, since the company started big right away with 17 products. Now, Forbes estimates that the company is valued at $1.7 billion and it continued to grow. Last year, she launched Honest Beauty, adding makeup and skin care to the company’s eco-friendly portfolio.
3. Alba Says She’s an ‘Easy Target’ as Honest Faces Multiple Lawsuits, Including a $5 Million Lawsuit Over Sunscreen
Jessica Alba at a Children Mending Hearts event in June 2016. (Getty)
Since last year, The Honest Company has faced multiple lawsuits from consumers who claimed that the product labels aren’t as honest as the company’s name.
In April 2016, the Organic Consumers Association sued the company because the Honest “Organic” Instant Formula “is not organic as labeled,” the lawsuit reads. “Instead, it has synthetic ingredients that are not allowed in organic products by federal law.”
The lawsuit claims that the formula includes 40 ingredients that are “synthetic substances that are not allowed in organic products.”
An Honest Company spokesperson told Fortune that the product in question had been approved by the FDA and “also certified USDA Organic by an independent third party, in strict accordance with the National Organic Program.”
In September 2015, ABC News reported that a $5 million class-action lawsuit was filed in Northern California District Court by Jonathan Rubin, who alleged that many of the Honest company’s cleaning products included “unnatural” ingredients and that the company’s sunscreen didn’t work at all. The suit followed social media complaints about the sunscreen.
In August 2015, Alba and Gavigan published a blog post defending their brand. They wrote:
We’ve gone through extensive third-party testing in accordance with government regulations and our Sunscreen Lotion passed all SPF 30 testing requirements. It also received the best score possible from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). We care about taking every precaution possible to ensure that your product experience will keep you healthy and happy.
In a statement to ABC News, Alba called the allegations in Rubin’s suit “baseless and without merit.” Still, the company did come up with a new formula and repackaging in response to the complaints.
While on The Today Show on August 25, she said she was an “easy target” because of who she is.
If an organization wants to bring awareness to their cause, I’m an easy target and our brand is an easy target obviously because I get different kind of attention than other brands would. It’s just sort of what happens.
4. Honest Donated Over $30,000 in 2014 & $40,000 in 2015 to the MaxLove Project, a Charity That Helps Children Dealing With Cancer
Jessica Alba at a TechCrunch talk in May 2016. (Getty)
Among the charities Alba supports is The MaxLove Project, which aims to provide services for children fighting cancer and to make their lives better. “we work to maximize quality of life and reduce serious health ricks for all childhood cancer survivors with fierce foods and whole-body wellness,” the organization states on its site.
In 2014, the Honest Company teamed up with MaxLove twice. In September, during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the Honest Company said it would donate up to $30,000 for each time #HonestLovesMax was used on social media. However, Honest donated $31,442 to the organization. During the holiday season, Honest and MaxLove Brand created winter knitwear, which helped provide “Fierce Food Kits” to 800 families and 180 hours of nutritional counseling.
Last year, Honest raised $40,000 through a second social media campaign with #HonestLovesMax.
Other charities Alba has shown support for include Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, ONE, Habitat for Humanity and Project HOME. She participated in a celebrity auction earlier this year, auctioning off a lunch date with herself for charity.
5. She Listed Her First Big Purchase, a $1.1 Million Beverly Hills Home, for Rent at $12,000 a Month
Jessica Alba and Jason Statham star in Mechanic: Resurrection. (Getty)
In 2002, Alba had just finished the two-season run of Dark Angel and was ready to make her first big purchase in Hollywood. She bought a $1.1 million home in Beverly Hills. After marriage, she bought a home four times that price and began renting out her bachelorette home. In 2011, it was available to rent for $9,000 a month, Yahoo News notes. But in April 2015, she rose the price to $12,000 a month.
The home has five bathrooms and two bedrooms and covers 2,300 square feet. Her father, Mark Alba, was the listing agent.
Although Alba hasn’t lived in the house since at least 2008, she still has a soft spot for it. She told Domaine that she turned the home into a vacation renal and hired Consort Design to make it over. Alba told the site:
I travel a lot and if there was a house like mine to stay in instead of a hotel, I would want to stay in my house. So I’m just thinking of someone who travels and who wants a cozy but luxurious and safe place to be. That’s sort of the vibe.
In August, Alba took Better Homes & Gardens on a tour of the home she lives in.